Google now reads your phone number......

[davek_964]

... and stores it for your account.

I assume I'm not the only one who got the email overnight saying they have started doing this.

You can turn it off in settings - which I immediately did - but I rather doubt that causes them to delete it.

[Mammasaid]

And??

[davek_964]

Mammasaid said:

And??

You don't think this is a step too far? I do - they have absolutely no need to do that, and it should definitely not default to "on".

[ARH]

I for one find it much easier that google remembers my phone number, than having to remember it myself, but then I am getting old

It not like your phone number is a secret, only you know.

[Funk]

Let's hope the OP never goes down the rabbit hole of just how much literally every company you ever deal with (and those you don't, in fact) are collecting about us and selling on to the highest bidder..

[Billy_Rosewood]

I dont think its a step too far per se, but there's a lot of creep and a conversation to be had.

The AI/big tech industry is the wild west with global scope, which needs a lot more accountability.

There should definitely be (legally enforced imo) tiers to services for
1) Those that want minimal intrusion - "I just want to use google search"..
2) Those that want some AI - "I want chatGPT to help me build this xxxx"...
3) ..And those that want a full on personal assistant - "I want Gemini to organise my life"

I find every week I receive an email from about T&C's being updated for my Meta/google/microsoft/chatgpt/etc service, now and again I'll read them, but most of the time, like most people, I ignore them and the ability for these companies to invade more and more privacy is incredibly easy.

Edited by Billy_Rosewood on Thursday 15th October 08:38

[Silverbullet767]

Wait till you find out about location services, microphone access, contacts access, camera access, nearby devices, physical activity and the rest! Do you have an LG TV perhaps? Or any other Smart TV?

[Liamjrhodes]

Google informing you that they know your phone number is the least of your worries. They already know much more detailed information if you use anything they have a finger in.

[RizzoTheRat]

Haven't Google been using SMS for 2 factor authentication when you log in a new device for years?

[Mammasaid]

RizzoTheRat said:

Haven't Google been using SMS for 2 factor authentication when you log in a new device for years?

Yes, however due to smishing attacks, it's better to use an authenticator app instead.

[Monkeylegend]

And just to think we all used to get a BT Telephone Directory every year with hundreds of thousand telephone numbers in it.

The mind boggles

[RizzoTheRat]

Mammasaid said:

RizzoTheRat said:

Haven't Google been using SMS for 2 factor authentication when you log in a new device for years?

Yes, however due to smishing attacks, it's better to use an authenticator app instead.

Yeah, they're moving away from it, but have clearly known users phone numbers for years. They know my e-mail address too.

[Mammasaid]

RizzoTheRat said:

Mammasaid said:

RizzoTheRat said:

Haven't Google been using SMS for 2 factor authentication when you log in a new device for years?

Yes, however due to smishing attacks, it's better to use an authenticator app instead.

Yeah, they're moving away from it, but have clearly known users phone numbers for years.

RizzoTheRat said:

They know my e-mail address too.

[Condi]

Funk said:

Let's hope the OP never goes down the rabbit hole of just how much literally every company you ever deal with (and those you don't, in fact) are collecting about us and selling on to the highest bidder..

I thought data selling was illegal in the UK? At least, identifiable data collection and selling certainly is. We don't have "data brokers" like they do in the US where there is no strong GDPR type law to protect people. So all the information Google collects is used only by Google to sell their advertising, same with Facebook and lots of other companies. Or at least that was my understanding?

But yes, it's a scary amount of data they can collect, if you ever have a look. Things like screen size and resolution, battery percentage, processor type and speed. All sorts of things they don't need for the webpage or app to work, but which gives your phone or computer a unique "fingerprint" they can use to track you. If you're really worried you can use Graphene OS which is a privacy operating system based on Android, or if you don't want to go that far then DuckDuckGo browser has a function to block app tracking. You can also use PiHole on your home network to stop tracking traffic.

[BORNXenon]

Condi said:

We don't have "data brokers" like they do in the US

We do. It may only be B2B data, (although I'm fairly certain brokers of B2C exist) but we definitely do.

[jonsp]

Condi said:

So all the information Google collects is used only by Google to sell their advertising, same with Facebook and lots of other companies. Or at least that was my understanding?

Correct.

You can go to Facebook and buy advertising targetted at 100,000 people potentially interested in what you sell. You can't ask Facebook to sell you a list of 100,000 people interested in what you sell. The data is their golden goose. That's not a legal issue it's a business issue.

Same as if you go to Gordon Ramsay's restaurant he won't sell you the recipe for the delicious dinner you just had so you can cook it at home.

[Condi]

BORNXenon said:

We do. It may only be B2B data, (although I'm fairly certain brokers of B2C exist) but we definitely do.

But not in the way they do in the US, I don't think? Personal data is much more regulated here than it is there.

[Funk]

Billy_Rosewood said:

I dont think its a step too far per se, but there's a lot of creep and a conversation to be had.

The AI/big tech industry is the wild west with global scope, which needs a lot more accountability.

There should definitely be (legally enforced imo) tiers to services for
1) Those that want minimal intrusion - "I just want to use google search"..
2) Those that want some AI - "I want chatGPT to help me build this xxxx"...
3) ..And those that want a full on personal assistant - "I want Gemini to organise my life"

I find every week I receive an email from about T&C's being updated for my Meta/google/microsoft/chatgpt/etc service, now and again I'll read them, but most of the time, like most people, I ignore them and the ability for these companies to invade more and more privacy is incredibly easy.

Agree with this.

The issue is that these companies move faster than the regulators - and even if the regulators catch up occasionally, the fines are less than the profit from doing it in the first place so they don't care. Also once the toothpaste is out of the tube, it's impossible to put it back in anyway.

Even when fines are applied, there's never any benefit to the users who had their rights/privacy/data violated - it just goes to some government entity somewhere and we all just have to accept we're being invasively and intrusively monitored by 'someone' 'somewhere'...

BORNXenon said:

Condi said:

We don't have "data brokers" like they do in the US

We do. It may only be B2B data, (although I'm fairly certain brokers of B2C exist) but we definitely do.

They often hide behind broad, vague phrases like "sharing your data" with "companies connected to us, and other third parties that help us deliver our services to you". Money may not have changed hands explicitly for data perhaps, but perhaps it did for 'consulting services' etc. It's a dirty business, that's for sure.

Condi said:

BORNXenon said:

We do. It may only be B2B data, (although I'm fairly certain brokers of B2C exist) but we definitely do.

But not in the way they do in the US, I don't think? Personal data is much more regulated here than it is there.

I'm quite certain that US companies (potentially through shell companies in other jurisdictions) hold swathes of data about individuals globally and don't give two hoots about what a UK regulator thinks or says...

Edited by Funk on Thursday 15th October 13:35

[BORNXenon]

Funk said:

Billy_Rosewood said:

I dont think its a step too far per se, but there's a lot of creep and a conversation to be had.

The AI/big tech industry is the wild west with global scope, which needs a lot more accountability.

There should definitely be (legally enforced imo) tiers to services for
1) Those that want minimal intrusion - "I just want to use google search"..
2) Those that want some AI - "I want chatGPT to help me build this xxxx"...
3) ..And those that want a full on personal assistant - "I want Gemini to organise my life"

I find every week I receive an email from about T&C's being updated for my Meta/google/microsoft/chatgpt/etc service, now and again I'll read them, but most of the time, like most people, I ignore them and the ability for these companies to invade more and more privacy is incredibly easy.

Agree with this.

The issue is that these companies move faster than the regulators - and even if the regulators catch up occasionally, the fines are less than the profit from doing it in the first place so they don't care. Also once the toothpaste is out of the tube, it's impossible to put it back in anyway.

Even when fines are applied, there's never any benefit to the users who had their rights/privacy/data violated - it just goes to some government entity somewhere and we all just have to accept we're being invasively and intrusively monitored by 'someone' 'somewhere'...

BORNXenon said:

Condi said:

We don't have "data brokers" like they do in the US

We do. It may only be B2B data, (although I'm fairly certain brokers of B2C exist) but we definitely do.

They often hide behind broad, vague phrases like "sharing your data" with "companies connected to us, and other third parties that help us deliver our services to you". Money may not have changed hands explicitly for data perhaps, but perhaps it did for 'consulting services' etc. It's a dirty business, that's for sure.

Condi said:

BORNXenon said:

We do. It may only be B2B data, (although I'm fairly certain brokers of B2C exist) but we definitely do.

But not in the way they do in the US, I don't think? Personal data is much more regulated here than it is there.

I'm quite certain that US companies (potentially through shell companies in other jurisdictions) hold swathes of data about individuals globally and don't give two hoots about what a UK regulator thinks or says...

Edited by Funk on Thursday 15th October 13:35

The company I work for sometimes buys B2B data for email campaigns. It's all categorised by sector, so if we want to target a specific sector to market to, we can just buy the lists pertaining to that sector.
The companies you buy it from will give you an 'expiry date' for the list and they will routinely 'seed' the list with a couple of dummy entries that will trigger a flag on their system so they know if you have used it past its expiry, allowing them to sell the same data over and over.

[Funk]

BORNXenon said:

Funk said:

Billy_Rosewood said:

I dont think its a step too far per se, but there's a lot of creep and a conversation to be had.

The AI/big tech industry is the wild west with global scope, which needs a lot more accountability.

There should definitely be (legally enforced imo) tiers to services for
1) Those that want minimal intrusion - "I just want to use google search"..
2) Those that want some AI - "I want chatGPT to help me build this xxxx"...
3) ..And those that want a full on personal assistant - "I want Gemini to organise my life"

I find every week I receive an email from about T&C's being updated for my Meta/google/microsoft/chatgpt/etc service, now and again I'll read them, but most of the time, like most people, I ignore them and the ability for these companies to invade more and more privacy is incredibly easy.

Agree with this.

The issue is that these companies move faster than the regulators - and even if the regulators catch up occasionally, the fines are less than the profit from doing it in the first place so they don't care. Also once the toothpaste is out of the tube, it's impossible to put it back in anyway.

Even when fines are applied, there's never any benefit to the users who had their rights/privacy/data violated - it just goes to some government entity somewhere and we all just have to accept we're being invasively and intrusively monitored by 'someone' 'somewhere'...

BORNXenon said:

Condi said:

We don't have "data brokers" like they do in the US

We do. It may only be B2B data, (although I'm fairly certain brokers of B2C exist) but we definitely do.

They often hide behind broad, vague phrases like "sharing your data" with "companies connected to us, and other third parties that help us deliver our services to you". Money may not have changed hands explicitly for data perhaps, but perhaps it did for 'consulting services' etc. It's a dirty business, that's for sure.

Condi said:

BORNXenon said:

We do. It may only be B2B data, (although I'm fairly certain brokers of B2C exist) but we definitely do.

But not in the way they do in the US, I don't think? Personal data is much more regulated here than it is there.

I'm quite certain that US companies (potentially through shell companies in other jurisdictions) hold swathes of data about individuals globally and don't give two hoots about what a UK regulator thinks or says...

Edited by Funk on Thursday 15th October 13:35

The company I work for sometimes buys B2B data for email campaigns. It's all categorised by sector, so if we want to target a specific sector to market to, we can just buy the lists pertaining to that sector.
The companies you buy it from will give you an 'expiry date' for the list and they will routinely 'seed' the list with a couple of dummy entries that will trigger a flag on their system so they know if you have used it past its expiry, allowing them to sell the same data over and over.

As mentioned, B2B for marketing purposes is a different kettle of fish...